Tonight is opening party for Ledbury's DC pop up store in Georgetown. Come out from 7-11 and enjoy live music, drinks (whiskey bar!), and 20% off! Last year this was a great event with such a great atmosphere. See you there!

We are so excited about our newest giveaway from Katie Diamond Jewelry! They are generously giving away the Labradorite Alhambra Necklace. The gorgeous necklace is set in 18k gold vemeil, and the hand-carved shape is modeled after a Moroccan design.

Katie's designs are hand-crafted with Indian and Moroccan influences and use very high-quality materials. Her jewelry is a celebrity favorite and is sold in over 100 stores including Fred Segal andMatta.

Here are a few of our favorites:

To enter the giveaway, check out Katie's website here and leave us a comment telling us your favorite design. For extra entries, blog or tweet about this giveaway and leave us a comment telling us that you did so! Good luck!

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Iris Apfel- who just might have the most famous glasses in the world- has a new jewelry collection out with Yoox. While scoping a little background info regarding Iris, I came across photos of her New York apartment that appeared in Architectural Digest earlier this year. I can't believe these didn't make a bigger splash around the blogosphere because, oh my goodness, this place is a chinoiserie dream! Let's take a peek...
Her vintage room. Ohhh the things those hangers must know.

Now that's a mirror. But I love how the stacked up books keep things modern and not too formal.

Safe to say she's not a minimalist..

A unique way to display her famous jewelry collection.

This hallway is just perfect...I love the green chinoiserie bookshelves, the china dog, the gallery wall. Stunning.

Such a great combinations of themes and styles in this vignette- not everyone would pair an Elizabethan painting with an Asian deity, a French clock, and chinoiserie vases. Yet somehow it all makes se

Iris may be know for her jewelry, but I'd say it's about time she's known for her interiors!
-Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Since the little man started preschool, we have accumulated quite the collection of his artwork from school. Some of it involves stickers and crayons and isn't really frame-worthy. But the pieces he paints are so fun and bright, and I have always loved the idea of hanging them up in a "sophisticated" manner.

Aerin Lauder makes her children's artwork appear refined by framing it and hanging it in her gorgeous breakfast room.

Framing children's artwork in a way that keeps it fitting with the rest of your house can be a challenge. One easy way to make inexpensive (or free!) artwork look fancier than it really is is to frame it with oversized mats. The art below from an Elle Decor bedroom may very well be original and expensive, but regardless, the oversized mats add style and sophistication to small pieces of art. They are also a good way to stretch your dime, when you can't afford a larger piece of art but need a large piece for your space.

I was delighted to see that Pottery Barn has come out with a line of affordable frames with oversized mats.

I decided to frame some "shorts" that he sponge-painted. It's hard to imagine these looking appropriate to hang on the wall, right?

Doesn't the oversized mat and frame totally change it?

I decided to hang them in my family room, since that is where we spend the most time.

I also framed his first paintbrush piece.

The oversized mats really do make them look more sophisticated than they really are. And it's fun to see little man so proud of his artwork- he climbs up in the chair to show it to everyone who comes in.

The quality of the frames is good, and it is very easy to change the art around, so I am planning to switch his pieces in and out as he brings more home from school!

One of my favorite parts about blogging is keeping tabs on great finds, be it a new piece of furniture, a great handbag, a thrift store score. However, as anyone who blogs or follows blogs can relate to, sometimes it feels like enough is enough, doesn't it? Lately I'm feeling like I have enough stuff and I don't want to bring one more thing into my apartment. Do you ever feel like that??

So in the spirit of enough stuff, here are a few of my favorite things...that I would never want to buy. Kind of liberating, isn't it??

From the makers of the piano key necktie....the Kate Spade piano key clutch. A cool $375 (though it was on sale the other day on the KS website). Much as we love Kate Spade for their ladylike-yet-whimsical style, we're not quite sure who gave this design the green light.

Next up. Nike calls this the "intensity long tight." I call this the most heinous specimen of jegging I have ever seen. Maybe that's why they've been hanging out on the clearance rack at TJ Maxx for the last few weeks. I'm all for jeggings...but not if they're acid wash and intended for working out!

They might not look horrid in the picture above, but trust me, in real life, they basically look like this:

Next. I was cruisin' around the Pottery Barn website the other day and noticed something quite curious in the decorative accessories section- this model Buggati- for a cool $5,000. I figured PB must just be marketing this as the ultimate toy for Junior come Christmas morning. Then I read the fine print:"Our Buggati is perfect for home decoration, and is not intended or marketed for actual use." $5,000 for a model car that sits in the corner...is Pottery Barn going the way of the Neiman Marcus holiday catalog?

Finally, not to make this beat up on Kate Spade day...but I do have Halloween candy on the brain, and apparently with the Chacha Chocolate Bon Shopper you can eat your candy and carry it too. This reminds me so much of Anya Hindmarch circa what was it, late 90's? With the photo printed bags?

Anyway, what with all the "oooh I love this" and "oooh we must have that," I thought it was time for a reminder that we don't just love everything we see out there in the marketplace! Have you had any "style to skip" moments lately?

On Tuesday, my friend Melissa missed this score of a lifetime (although she has had many) by about 5 minutes. As she pulled into the parking lot of the Habitat store, she snapped this pic of a very lucky lady loading this Dorothy Draper Espana chest into her car.

If the proud new owner reads MoS, please email us and tell us about your new piece!!

This is the stuff I dream (okay, FANTASIZE) about. Who donates an Espana chest???

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Last night I was lucky enough to see the one and only Tom Wolfe at the Newseum for a reading of his work and panel discussion. As I was arriving, I wondered if it the lore was really true...would he really show up to a DC event in late October wearing a white suit? The second I stepped off the elevator, I stopped dead in my tracks--there it was in front of me, the legendary white suit. It practically radiated under the flourescent lights, and of course, there was not a wrinkle in sight. On his feet were black and white oxfords and black and white argyle socks. It was amazing to think of how all those biiiiig books and their larger-than-life characters all came from the mind of slight figure standing in front of me...

Later in the evening, as Wolfe addressed a question regarding how he came to adopt his signature white suit, the power of his sartorial choices really struck me...the suit has become such a powerful point of recognition that is inextricably linked with his literary legacy. Case in point, Wolfe back in the day...

And Wolfe today, looking every bit as dapper. It got me thinking about other powerful icons of style...people who picked a trademark look early on and have stuck with it for the duration of their careers. And rather than seeming boring or outdated, it's actually helped define them.

Another great example--Lauren Hutton. She's been rocking that menswear style for so long she practically owns the concept. Especially the wide pants.

And she looks just as great doing that now. J Crew even has an entire line of pants named after her this fall (wide leg, of course).

Clothing isn't the only way to create a recognizable look...does this haircut ring a bell to you? Think hard...

It's none other than Anna Wintour, who has been sporting her signature bob since way back in the day. A pretty ingenious tactic if you think about it; no one's ever distracted over Anna's hairstyle. It's sleek, no-nonsense, predictable...which leaves plenty of time for people to concentrate on the REAL event, which is her wardrobe. A shrewd move for someone who, as the editor of Vogue, basically sells clothes for a living.

Believe it or not, there was a time before geek glasses were "cool"...and this director wore them anyway.

The trends have definitely moved in Woody Allen's favor...after all those years he's still sporting his same thick-rimmed black glasses.

The one thing all of these individual have in common is that it's not necessarily their style that defines them--they're all extremely talented in their own right, be it at writing, editing, acting, etc. In a way, their consistent style has helped their actual talents shine, while keeping their public personas instantly recognizable and classic.

Anyway, in our instant-makeover, today-it's-in-tomorrow-it's-out tendencies these days, I love looking back at people who decided who they were early on--and stuck with it. Inspiring stuff.

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